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Published: August 8th 2007
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What can I say? I fell in love with Venice the second I saw it from the aeroplane window. I couldn’t even see the canals at that stage, just beautiful fields. And unlike flying over other rural areas, Venice’s fields looked like a multi-coloured patchwork quilt with fields of grapevines punctuating the flatter fields giving it amazing texture. Really, I don’t even know if the fields are the reason why I fell so instantly in love, or if it were something else, something unexplainable. I think that Venice has its own kind of magic that’s instantly bewitching because for the whole four days Kristian and I were there, even when things went wrong as they invariably do while travelling, I never fell out of love.
We arrived late the first night and were staying on the mainland near Venice and not on the actual island itself (in order to save money) so we didn’t see anything the first night. But the next morning when we got to the island of Venice we were both absolutely breath taken. Every time we crossed a bridge and looked down the quaint little canals surrounded by apartments we sighed. Every time we turned a
corner and the next street was cuter than the last we couldn’t wipe the smiles off our faces. And every time we saw a gondola go past we jumped up and down and clapped our hands and said how much we couldn’t wait to go on one. (Ok, we really only did that for the first few hours because they’re everywhere and that’s a lot of hand-clapping in four days!)
Due to the amount of water the only way to get around once off the mainland is either walk or take water taxis. Being on a money-saving holiday and all, Kristian and I chose the walking option. It’s not such a big city that it’s impossible to walk everywhere, but after four days of walking it can get pretty tiring. The other thing is that because of all the canals and small streets it’s very easy to get lost - I don’t think I’ve ever been to a city where it was so difficult to get my bearings. It was like being in a maze. A gorgeous maze, but a maze nevertheless.
Regardless, I have to say that I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so taken by
the aesthetics of a city. Yes, you’re eyes aren’t fooling you, I’m actually saying that not even Strasbourg or Paris are as beautiful as Venice. It’s like the perfect blend between ancient European city and an island getaway. There are cute little windy streets and small canals, but there are also really big, sparkly canals that lead directly to the ocean that smell like salty ocean air. Whoever started the rumour that Venice smells bad over summer is just mean! The only thing Venice smells of is the sea.
So, over the four days we spent there Kristian and I got up every morning, caught a bus into the city and spent the day wandering around, visiting museums and eating. Fabulous! Actually, I think we saw a record breaking number of museums for those few days. We got a really good deal for a student museum pass and decided to make the most of it, visiting museums exhibiting things like Venetian artefacts, ancient Venetian fabric and textiles, marionettes (so cool!), and my favourite, the modern art museum. We also saw lots of old palaces where influential Venetian families lived back in the old days where people liked splashing gold
all over their walls and painting their ceilings.
But of course, the absolute must-do when in Venice is get a gondola ride. Yes, it was expensive (40€ each for about 30 mins), but since we’d been eating 29c packets of risotto and drinking 49c bottles of wine for dinner it really wasn’t breaking the budget. There are gondoliers everywhere soliciting tourists to take a ride in their gondola, so Kristian and I developed strict criteria; our gondolier had to be cute and he had to be wearing a stripy shirt. As it turned out, our gondolier was actually really nice, he didn’t speak much English but enough to point out the main sights and give bits of info here and there. Personally, I didn’t care so much about the different monuments we passed, I just couldn’t believe the fact that I was actually sitting in a gondola in Venice, something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. And, unlike so many other things that have high expectations, I wasn’t at all disappointed. I couldn’t have been happier, and I think I fell even more in love with Venice when on the gondola if that was at all possible.
But, apart from being in one of the most gorgeous places on earth, I once again found myself in a country where I didn’t speak the language. Kristian, ever prepared, had looked up the phrases, “Sorry I don’t speak Italian,” and “Do you speak English or French?” before we left. Although it was a fantastic idea, it didn’t really help us when the majority of people’s responses were “No.” They often didn’t speak either language, and so we were left blank faced staring at each other wondering what to do from there. One moment that was particularly funny was the first morning we caught the bus into Venice from our B&B on the mainland. We were waiting at the bus stop wondering if we could buy our tickets on the bus when an old Italian lady came to sit at the bus stop. Kristian proceeded to ask her, in Italian, if she spoke English or French but she didn’t. But Kristian didn’t give up! He proceeded to mime, Marcel Marceau style, the bus pulling up, him climbing up the bus stairs, pulling change out of his pocket and giving it to the bus driver to buy a ticket. The lady
cracked up laughing and shook her head, pointing to a little deli a bit further down the road. Hey, it worked! He got the point across and we found out where to buy bus tickets without a single word being spoken!
Having said that though, I was very happy when in the rare occasions some museums didn’t have an English translation, I was able to decipher the Italian because of its similarity to French. Of course it wasn’t a perfect translation, but it’s definitely a gratifying thought to think that if I did decide to take up another Latin based language I wouldn’t have to put in as many of the hard yards I’ve put into learning French.
All in all, four amazing days were spent wandering around a city I will think of fondly for the rest of my life. Did it make me want to change my plans, learn Italian instead of French and try to land myself a job in the rumoured-to-be-sinking ocean city? Yes, for a while. But then I realised that living there would tarnish the perfect image I have of it, and I always want to remember Venice as a perfect, dream
holiday.
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Kristian
non-member comment
Ahhhh
Ahh memories. I have never looked at photos of a destination so many times and they've managed to illicit a sigh each time. I've downloaded your sleeping gondolier man, so 'grazie mille' for that one!